It was my understanding that Bret's WWF contract didn't expire until a few weeks after Survivor Series. Bret agreed to lose the title before his contract expired, but Vince was afraid Bischoff would announce on Nitro he signed Bret before his WCW contract kicked in. Not wanting to face the embarrassment of WCW announcing they signed the current WWF champion, Vince felt he needed to get the belt off Bret ASAP. And the night after the screw job, Bischoff did announce he signed Bret Hart, while he was still under contract to WWF.

It was my understanding that Bret's WWF contract didn't expire until a few weeks after Survivor Series. Bret agreed to lose the title before his contract expired, but Vince was afraid Bischoff would announce on Nitro he signed Bret before his WCW contract kicked in. Not wanting to face the embarrassment of WCW announcing they signed the current WWF champion, Vince felt he needed to get the belt off Bret ASAP. And the night after the screw job, Bischoff did announce he signed Bret Hart, while he was still under contract to WWF.

Correct me if any of that is wrong.

His contract wasn't expiring it had already been broken by Vince hence freeing Bret to negotiate with WCW. So his contract at that point was null and void. Bret even says in interviewes he had the right not to even show up at Survivor Series and just just hand the belt back to Vince but he wanted to do it the "right way". He just refused to lose to Shawn Michaels due the reasons I've layed out. He did agree if he were to win at Survivor Series he would a clean 1-2-3 job the next night in Ottawa but "that wasn't good enough for Vince."

I don't think Vince was worried about what Bischoff might do. The word had already leaked that Bret was going to WCW and this was his last match. Vince knew Bret would not pull an "Alundra Blayze" and show up on Nitro with the belt. I think it was about Shawn and Hunter stirring Vince up and making it seem like Bret was the one out of line in demanding how he was to leave the company. I think Vince was frustrated with Bret for negotiating the contract in 1996 and even more frustrated that he was making it hard on Vince to transition to Shawn.

Bischoff did not announce Bret had signed with WCW but he did insinuate it. The NWO showed up with Canadian flags and sang a horrible "O Canada". Bischoff made reference to Bret knocking out Vince but that was it. He did not announce Bret was coming to WCW but everyone knew by that time.

Of course he did, what did he expect Vince to do? Bret was offered many different scenarios to drop the belt and he refused every one of them, thats something not even HOGAN did to Vince so yeah, id say McMahon was very justified in taking the belt off of Bret in the way that he did. Brets been whining about that for decades and it was al his fault lol.

Of course he did, what did he expect Vince to do? Bret was offered many different scenarios to drop the belt and he refused every one of them, thats something not even HOGAN did to Vince so yeah, id say McMahon was very justified in taking the belt off of Bret in the way that he did. Brets been whining about that for decades and it was al his fault lol.

Thank you very much for your true opinion regarding Bret Hart there @relentless1. It doesn't even matter if Shawn Michaels is a problematic person to deal with in the 1990s, only Bret's self-righteousness and hypocrisies are magnified far more so than Michaels' drug addled lifestyle. I think Bret would be the first drug-free person (if he is actually what he claims himself to be) who needs to go to DDP Yoga.

Bret Hart even if he's a drug free person, I think Bret needs to go to DDP Yoga so he can eliminate the bitterness that's been plaguing him for nearly close to 20 years now. DDP can even teach Bret how to behave and not to be a bitter moral authoritarian in public, especially with the way he's been ripping on guys like Triple H in recent years.

Of course he did, what did he expect Vince to do? Bret was offered many different scenarios to drop the belt and he refused every one of them, thats something not even HOGAN did to Vince so yeah, id say McMahon was very justified in taking the belt off of Bret in the way that he did. Brets been whining about that for decades and it was al his fault lol.

Thank you very much for your true opinion regarding Bret Hart there @relentless1. It doesn't even matter if Shawn Michaels is a problematic person to deal with in the 1990s, only Bret's self-righteousness and hypocrisies are magnified far more so than Michaels' drug addled lifestyle. I think Bret would be the first drug-free person (if he is actually what he claims himself to be) who needs to go to DDP Yoga.

Why doesn't Shawn Michaels' behavior matter? Shawn refused to work with Bret why couldn't Bret do the same thing? Vince let Shawn get away with far more bullshit than he did Bret Hart.

Why doesn't Shawn Michaels' behavior matter? Shawn refused to work with Bret why couldn't Bret do the same thing? Vince let Shawn get away with far more bullshit than he did Bret Hart.

@Makaveli31: Because Bret acted like a self-righteous moral crusader and a hypocrite. Bret criticizes Shawn for playing politics, and acting like he would never do that, and then Bret goes straight ahead and does exactly the same thing. It isn't that Bret was only doing what Shawn did first, it was Bret's self-righteousness in that he was better than Shawn, when his actions in the end show that he was no better. Bret should have agreed to do the job at SS '97, and then could hold the high moral ground. But Bret prefers to play the victim. Shawn played politics, and was a "bastard". The difference was, Shawn never claimed to be anything else (he hadn't cleaned up his life until many years later). Bret pushed his moral stance around, and often spoke about the "immorality" of things that WWE did. It was Bret's self-righteousness and hypocrisy that was the problem.

Also, Shawn said that he knew what was going to happen, everyone else knew what would happen (at SS '97), and he believed, deep down in Bret's heart, Bret "knew" what was going on to. Two scenes in "Wrestling With Shadows" stand out to me. Bret asked Earl Hebner if "something was going down tonight" and if Hebner would call it down the line. Why would he ask Hebner this? If Bret never saw it coming, why would he ask the referee for his match these questions? Also, Bret pulls Vince aside before the match, and goes to talk to him privately in the corner. But Bret is wearing a mike, so we can hear the conversation. Why would Bret record a private conversation, and not tell Vince? I think Bret knew something was going to happen, but maybe not all the details. So to claim to be totally surprised is wrong.

In the end, Bret could have just kicked out of the submission Bret could have refused to do the match. What would Vince do, fire him? He was already leaving, so he could have turned the tables. But no: Bret's personal image is all important to him. He has to look like the good guy in any situation, so he just goes ahead and blames others for things that went wrong, when some (most actually) of it is his own fault.

Short answer Makaveli, Shawn Michaels chose to deal with the wrestling business as a real, mature adult and Bret Hart chose to deal with the wrestling business and the Montreal Screwjob as a petulant overgrown child. The more unsavory stuff I hear about Bret, the more I lose my respect for him and it really makes me wanna respect and applaud Shawn Michaels for putting Bret Hart in his place at the bottom barrel via Montreal Screwjob at the 1997 Survivor Series. In other words, using the Bret vs. Shawn analogy in minor details, I'd rather be a drug addicted honest person who keeps it real 110% all the time than a sober but self-righteous hypocrite/moral crusader who has to play the victim card. The one thing I hate more than getting hooked on drugs is playing the victim card especially as a moral crusader.

Having to choose between a 32-year-old still-in-his prime Shawn Michaels or a 40-year-old Bret Hart on the decline is like having to choose between a superstar or a role player. Obviously, I'd go take my chances with the superstar over the insubordinate role player. AKA, i'd rather go with Mark McGwire than risk taking a chance on a mediocre role player like Billy Ripken. Bret Hart and Billy Ripken are one the same.

Go get some sleep, @LBGetBack. We can talk more when you are refreshed and ready for more chatter. Apart from that, I'm glad you took a dig at me calling Bret Hart a Billy Ripken. Can somebody launch the new meaning of Billy Ripken on Urban Dictionary or something?

In my opinion, they had other option going into survivor series then screwing bret out of the title. The fact that they had until the end of november to take the title away from him. Bret at one time was ready to drop the belt to shawn until shawn went to bret and told him that if the role we're reverse, he wouldn'T do the honours.

So Bret, who had creative control for his last 30 days, went and propose a scenario we're he would win at survivor series by DQ and then in Ottawa the next day, he would drop the title to Ken Shamrock and they could do what they wanted after. That's the part of the conversation that's never brought up by WWE when talking about the montreal Screwjob is that Bret Was willing to lose clean to somebody else in canada on Raw the following day, he just didn't want to lose to shawn in montreal because he felt disrespected by shawn's Comments.

Bret always put trust in people first and himself second, that's pretty what everybody that knows him says. He trusted Vince and thought of him like a dad, he didn'T want to leave The WWE but vince couldn'T pay him anymore and pretty much help him get his WCW deal. This was pretty much a sign that vince just wanted Bret out of WWE and wanted to move on without him, so it's not surprising that vince would have done that to Bret in the end and no matter how much time as pass and how much the company line is to say that they had no choice at the time, the fact is, they had time to think of something else, Bret had a great exit strategy and it wouldn'T have damage anything they had plan since they we're going to do Shamrock vs HBK anyway at the next PPV so Shawn could have won the belt at the Dx ppv against shamrock instead if vince would have wanted it. So i don'T think Bret brought this on himself at all.